Amy Walker, an instructor with PERT, conducted a seminar for the University of Florida, Warrington School of Business in Gainesville, Florida.

From Warrington School of Business at UF, used with permission.

Students Earn SAP Certification on Campus

Students in the Warrington College's Decision & Information Sciences (DIS) program were presented with a unique professional development opportunity this summer. The SAP Business Process Integration Certification program took place in July 2001, presented by SAP. The College was eligible for participation in this program as a member of the SAP University Alliance, which provided the training session at minimal cost to students. The $1,700 fee was just a fraction of the typical charge for such certification at an SAP academy-normally $12,000 plus living expenses for the three-week course.
"This was an excellent opportunity for our students," said DIS chair Selcuk Erenguc. "Aside from the tremendous cost break, students didn't have to travel to a special location to take the course. They also have the advantage of already being SAP certified when they enter the workforce."

Because the program was limited, participation was initially offered to MSDIS and MBA students with a DIS Concentration, or DIS/SCM/E-commerce Certification. Undergraduate DIS student applications were considered if MS/DIS and MBA students did not fill all the spaces available. In all, 15 MSDIS, one MBA and three undergraduate students took the course.

The instructor, Amy Walker, C.P.M., also teaches SAP Materials Management, Quality Management and Supply Chain Management courses for SAP, and does some consulting with them as well. SAP has training centers in San Francisco, Chicago and other locations around the country where individuals can enroll in the certification program. Classes were held all day, Monday through Friday, during the program. In order to obtain certification, students were required to pass an examination administered on the last day of the course.

In addition to the exam, students were required to participate in a group presentation exercise. Using the same data from a fictional company case study, the three teams developed pitches to persuade potential clients of the benefits of implementing enterprise software, and the ways in which it could enhance their business. Students were graded on a number of aspects, including professionalism, ability to translate technical concepts, and incorporating aspects of the application into the presentation.

Walker says that students in the university courses tend to do better in the certification programs than corporate clients because they know how to study. Very well, as it turns out-every student in the class passed the certification exam.